The head of the team which was tasked with assessing candidates for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, Harold Mayne-Nicholls, has been handed a seven year ban on conducting any football-related activity by FIFA for violating the organization’s code of ethics.

“The adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics
Committee, chaired by Hans-Joachim Eckert, has decided to ban
Harold Mayne-Nicholls, former chairman of the Bid Evaluation
Group for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups and former Chilean
Football Association President, from taking part in any kind of
football-related activity at national and international level for
a period of seven years,” a statement on FIFA’s website
said.

The ban was handed down after a hearing on Monday, in the
presence of Mayne-Nicholls and the head of the investigatory
chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee, Dr Cornel Borbely.

The reasons for the ruling were not revealed, with the football’s
governing body promising “more detailed information … after
the final decision becomes effective.”

Article 36 of the FIFA Code of Ethics prevents the Ethics
Committee members from sharing any details of the case
prematurely, with perpetrators to “be suspended by the FIFA
Disciplinary Committee until the next FIFA Congress.”

The investigation against Mayne-Nicholls was launched in November
last year, with British media reporting that he has been probed
over links to the Qatari Aspire Academy for Sports Excellence.